Under the supervision of the Country Representative and Project/Work Package Leaders, the research officer in participatory methods will liaise with communities and local authorities, facilitate community planning, collect field data, contribute to reporting and provide scientific and technical support to sustainable agriculture, integrated farming and environmental management including wetlands for IWMI in Laos.
Requirements:
General Duties And Responsibilities:
Provide research inputs - Under supervision and utilizing participatory methods and approaches, support the establishment of sustainable agriculture learning groups and facilitate through workshops, meetings and presentations, effective collaboration and co-learning and evaluation among its members;
Ensure the inclusion and effective participation of a wide range of stakeholders in the learning groups (living labs LLs) especially women and socially marginalized groups;
Conduct secondary data collation, literature synthesis, interviews, and other research activities in sustainable agriculture (agroecology);
Facilitate and support the organization of project outreach activities such as pilot studies in agroecological innovations, capacity building through farmer field school type approaches and dialogue platforms with LL members (e.g., national and regional stakeholders and research partners, including the private sector);
Support research outputs – Compile and analyze data and contribute to scientific publications, policy briefs, research papers, case studies, reports, briefs, presentations and other forms of science outputs and more general materials for dissemination to wider policy and public audiences;
Carry out other project and research related activities as required.
Minimum Educational Qualifications And Experience:
Essential:
Master’s degree or combined educational and professional experience in development studies, human geography, sociology, development economics, or closely related field relevant to water resources management, agricultural development and natural resource governance.
Minimum three(3) years of related work experience.
Experience conducting field research utilizing participatory methods;
Knowledge, Skills And Abilities:
Lao language and in country experience ideally in rural areas and with ethnic minorities an advantage
Experience in presenting research results to wider audiences essential and contributing to scientific publications a distinct advantage;
Confidence speaking in English and strong written English skills;
Advanced knowledge of all main MS Office applications;
Ability to work in multidisciplinary teams and build strong working relationships with a range of key stakeholders, inclusive of farmers, government agencies, national universities, international agencies, media, and civil society organizations;
Capacity to manage a workload comprising multiple tasks and to deliver high quality outputs on time, whilst ensuring attention to detail;
Ability to be bring a creative and proactive approach to tasks, to work to own initiative and to require minimal supervision.
Desirable:
Experience using a variety of participatory research methods at field level.
Knowledge of using software for qualitative and quantitative data analysis.
Knowledge of additional national languages.
Must be able and willing to travel frequently to remote locations.
